Quantitative Finance and Risk Management

Profile

The “Finance and Risk Management” major aims to train financial markets specialists and, more generally, banking and asset management professionals.

The strength of this training delivered at ENSAE ParisTech is the balance between the teaching of applied mathematics (based on probability, theory of processes and associated numerical methods) and lessons in economics, econometrics and statistics. Theoretical courses alternate with applied finance lessons, and are supplemented by professional seminars.

Careers

At this level of skills, this training is unique. It provides students with a wide range of opportunities. The most likely functions to be held after graduation are: market operators (traders, structurers), financial engineers ("quants"), portfolio managers, risk managers on market or credit risk, etc. The technical knowledge given by this training will provide the necessary tools to progress to positions of high responsibility or to other environments, such as financial management.

All finance market trades are characterized by their high technical level. After training, graduates will be able to handle complex assessment/cover tools of sophisticated derivatives, to build and quantify the risks of a financial portfolio, to provide tools and measures for a relevant activity management.

Young Ensae graduates will be equipped to find their place within the various families of financial institutions (banks, brokers, asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds), insurance companies, national and international regulators, consulting or software firms, rating agencies, etc. A high proportion of careers takes place abroad (at least partially), especially in major financial centers such as London, New York, Tokyo or Singapore.

Depending on their own aspirations, students can take a course more oriented towards core market room positions (quant/structurer/trader) by choosing the “Market Finance” unit or a more multidisciplinary training adapted to risk manager/portfolio manager/risk modeler positions by opting for the “Risk management and control” unit. A wide range of optional courses allows to strengthen the specialization in a field or, on the contrary, to acquires a versatile training.

Finally, one of the two jointly accredited Masters in mathematical finance may supplement the training offered by the ENSAE ParisTech: Stochastic Modeling (Paris-Diderot University) and MASEF (Paris-Dauphine University). The programs of these two masters are adjusted to allow ENSAE ParisTech students toattend them in good conditions. They also allow to head towards academic research in many areas: financial mathematics, financial econometrics, numerical probabilities, stochastic control, etc.